Wounding the social psyche
A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by Lasantha Wickrematunge’s daughter opens Victor Ivan’s account of the wounds left on Sri Lankan society by abductions, disappearances and unpunished political murder.
Barring Nagananda Kodituwakku from practicing law
The Supreme Court has barred a public-interest litigator and prospective presidential candidate from practising for three years. Victor Ivan weighs Nagananda Kodituwakku’s record — and the record of those he fought.
Investigating corruption of the Yahapalana Government
The Yahapalana government’s flagship anti-corruption inquiry was chaired, Victor Ivan notes, by a former Chief Justice whose own record he sets out at length. A column about who is trusted to investigate whom.
Elimination of bribery and corruption
Duty-free vehicle permits, business with the state, staffing rackets: Victor Ivan lists what a new constitution would have to prohibit outright, and points to Hong Kong’s anti-corruption commission as a working model.
Roots of bribery and corruption
Corruption in Sri Lanka is not a failure of individual character but a system built deliberately, Victor Ivan argues — traced here from J.R. Jayewardene’s admiration for Napoleon to the party machinery that now depends on it.
Overcoming the crisis: The second freedom struggle
If the collapse of the state cannot now be avoided, what should replace it? Victor Ivan calls for a ‘second freedom struggle’ led by public organisations rather than political parties, aimed at a new constitution.
Anarchy and the collapse of the State
The Executive and the Legislature have disintegrated; the Judiciary may yet find its orders ignored. Victor Ivan reads the state as a machine whose faults were visible, and whose remaining life could have been predicted, long ago.
ලලිත් ප්රේමදාස ඝාතනය (II)
Part II recounts how an informant inside Sucharitha, Premadasa’s residence, telephoned Ivan at night; how the informant’s warnings proved true, including of a planned explosion at the UNP May Day rally that Ivan tried to expose in Ravaya; Mohideen’s revelations; the threats that followed; Bradman Weerakoon’s view of the Premadasa killing; the ‘Sudu Mahattaya’ of Wellampitiya; and why Hemantha Warnakulasuriya’s claims fail both legally and ethically.
ලලිත්-ප්රේමදාස ඝාතන
Replying to President’s Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, who told Mawbima and Ceylon Today that Ivan had hated Premadasa and set out to show that Premadasa, not the LTTE, killed Lalith Athulathmudali, Ivan recalls that Warnakulasuriya had defended Magistrate Lenin Ratnayake, whose rape case Ravaya exposed in August 1997. He restates his view of the 1993 killing of Lalith Athulathmudali, including a government news report three days earlier naming him as a suicide-bomber target, and his last conversation with Athulathmudali the night before.
ඌව ඡන්දය හා අශීලාචාර මැතිවරණ ක්රමය
With the Uva provincial election showing the government’s abuse of state resources, from Divi Neguma handouts to Samurdhi officers campaigning, Ivan compares campaign-finance rules in the United States, France and India with Sri Lanka, where spending limits vanished after 1978. He asks whether the Commissioner of Elections has the power to act, citing court rulings, and proposes nine reforms, including penalties for politicians who order officials to break the law, stronger powers for the Commissioner, control of party funds, and full asset declarations for candidates.